First off, thank you to everyone who participated in this contest! It was genuinely nice to hear from all of you, and whether or not you participated this time, I hope all of you are further encouraged to comment for whatever reasons in the future. Now, without further ado…

The winner of the Mandingueira on Facebook exclusive draw is Isabella Chan. Congratulations, Isabella! Please send me your mailing address ASAP so I may send you your copy of Capoeira Beyond Brazil.

As for the general draw…okay, well, so here’s the deal. I thought I’d do something REALLY COOL, and actually filmed the draw (I used my cabaça as the receptacle) so you guys could watch and all be in on the process. Unfortunately, everything but my camera refused to cooperate (i.e. WordPress, QuickTime, Youtube, and this other file management site I used to rely on), so I wasn’t able to upload the video. And believe me, I tried! There was background capoeira music and a little “Congratulations!” sign at the end and everything! So in (sad) lieu, please imagine the berimbau equivalent of a drum roll as you read the following:

Congratulations to all the winners! Please send me your mailing address BEFORE MONDAY so I can post your copies of Capoeira Beyond Brazil out to you before I leave for Montreal (again, my flight is on Wednesday and I would seriously appreciate not having to include 5 copies of the same book within my 23kg baggage limit!). If for whatever reason you don’t want or can’t have the book, also let me know ASAP, please, so I can draw a new winner. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy Capoeira Beyond Brazil, and to reiterate, I will be writing a review of it within the upcoming weeks.

Thank you so much again to everyone for participating. If you didn’t win this time, look on the bright side: the universe now owes you some other form of good karma. 🙂 Finally, thank you to Blue Snake Books for sponsoring this contest.

Yes, you read that right—happy holidays, everyone! With much thanks to the sponsorship of Blue Snake Books, Mandingueira is offering YOU, my loyal, lovely, and lethally cool readers, a chance to win 1 of 5 free copies of the latest capoeira book on the market: Capoeira Beyond Brazil: From a Slave Tradition to an International Way of Life, by Aniefre Essien.

I’ve actually had my eye on this book for a while, since I discovered its planned October release way back in February, so I’m extremely excited about this! I feel like it speaks to an area nearly every capoeirista outside of Brazil would be deeply interested in: the globalization of capoeira. Of course, this is me still judging by the cover, but it won’t be for much longer! In addition to the five copies for you guys, Blue Snake sent me a review copy for myself, so I will be reading and posting a review of Capoeira Beyond Brazil in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, click here for the book’s official synopsis.

This giveaway was originally to be in honour of Mandingueira’s one-year anniversary (it was the second surprise I mentioned!), but I didn’t want to announce it until I had the books in my hand, and due to a warehouse backlog they arrived only yesterday—just in time for Christmas! Either way though, the purpose of this remains the same: to show my appreciation for all of you, and give something back for everything you’ve added to this blog. Since I am still(!) working on the Mandingueira One-Year Retrospect magazine, these are further tokens of my thanks and appreciation for you, and I hope you will enjoy the books!

Now, I’m sure I’ve held you long enough in suspense…let’s get down to the important details.

—

MANDINGUEIRA’S HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY:
OFFICIAL CONTEST RULES

1. Winners will be picked by random draw.

2. The FIRST way to enter the draw is to post a comment of substance on any post on Mandingueira. This means adding to the discussion, raising new ideas, contributing information, constructive criticism, constructive praise, etc. You can also simply introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your capoeirista/Mandingueira reader/feminist/activist/etc. background, whichever are applicable, if any. (Calling all lurkers, this is for you! 🙂 )Trite/easy comments such as “Great post!” or “Cool contest!” will be appreciated but not counted, and trolls (NOT to be confused with respectful, reasoned disagreement) will be disqualified. If you post more than one comment (including replies to other people’s comments), I will enter your name once for each comment, up to a maximum of three (3) comments.

3. The SECOND way to enter the draw is to subscribe to Mandingueira, by RSS feed or by email. If you subscribe by email, I will see your email address and be able to count you. If you subscribe by RSS feed, you will have to notify me after you do, through email or dropping a line under this post. (Telling me that you subscribed does not alone count as a comment, unless it is part of a comment that is eligible otherwise.) Obviously, this is honours system-based. Please respect that and refrain from scamming the contest.

4. You may subscribe AND leave comments, for a maximum of 4 entries in the draw (up to 3 comments + 1 subscription).

5. One book will be reserved for an exclusive draw for fans of Mandingueira on Facebook. To be eligible for the exclusive draw, you must be already a fan of the page or join by the end of December 26, 2008 (my time). Note: Those eligible for the exclusive draw may also enter in the general draw, in the ways described above.

6. This contest ends at 11:59pm on January 1, 2009 (my time).

7. At that point I will collect names from all comments and subscriptions from now until then, for both the general draw and exclusive draw. (All comments are recorded in one place on my WordPress Dashboard, which is how I can still keep track if they’re on different posts all over the blog.) Random names will be drawn and the winners notified. There will be two draws overall: one general draw for four books, and the exclusive Facebook page draw for one book. Each winner will receive 1 book, even if your name is drawn more than once.

7. On entering the draw, you must give a legitimate email address so I can contact you if you win, as well as be willing to give me a legitimate mailing address upon winning so that I can send the book to you. I must send out all the prizes by January 7th (because I have a flight that day for a new job in another city), so if a winner does not respond with their address before then, they either forfeit the prize or may not receive it for another 4-8 months.

8. Your entering the contest signifies that you understand and accept the Mandingueira Holiday Giveaway Official Contest Rules.

9. Help spread the word! Your capoeira friends thank you, and so do I. 😀

—

I hope all of that was clear! Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the giveaway. Happy Holidays!

“Vision without action is merely a dream,” as the saying goes.
…In a way, this transformation of ideas into action parallels how many (though not all) capoeira students first learn to think about various concepts and ideas in capoeira, and then learn to apply them while playing in the roda.